My favorite backhanded compliment as a systems expert is “you’re just naturally organized—so systems actually work for you.” The reason this makes me chuckle is that if you know me, you know that the inside of my brain is a pinball machine and my desk is covered in post-it notes that I forget to look at again.

Organization, time management, and prioritization (and actually working on those prioritized task instead of whatever else I want to do) certainly do not come naturally for me 😅 and if they don’t come naturally for you either, you are in the right place.

Why traditional systems don’t work for the ADHD brain

If you recoil when you hear the word “systems,” it’s because the systems that we’re taught to “stay organized” are for people who are comforted by structure, routine, and having a linear path forward.

And if you’ve made it this far into reading this, odds are your brain feels confined by overly rigid structure & routines, and your ideal path follows your creative whims and is more of a winding mountain road with lots of stops to take pictures, multiple iced coffees, and at least a few wrong turns.

So yeah, that’s why when you try to force yourself into a traditional system that everyone seems to SWEAR BY, you feel like you’re being held against your will. So you abandon it, just like the other 14,000 things you’ve tried.

That’s not a you problem, that’s a systems design flaw.

So what can we do to build systems that actually work for you as an ADHD business owner?

Let’s break it down:

If too much structure feels oppressive, the answer isn’t no structure, it’s structure that supports flexibility.

The trick is goldilocks-ing your systems into having just the right amount of structure to keep you in the direction you’re headed, but with enough time for detours.

One of my favorite hacks for this is creating the Illusion of Choice.

And to do this, I must first say that you will need a project management tool. No, not your notes app or a google sheet or the crusty post-it notes on your desk or the planner you forgot you had because you abandoned it after 2 weeks. A real life techy one. I recommend ClickUp, and I have a free template for getting started in ClickUp so you don’t have to wonder “wtf do I do now???”

In my ClickUp KickStart template, I have a New Client list that I use to track individual client projects. My main view is my tasks grouped by status, because the majority of my projects require me to complete a certain set of tasks by a single deadline. If your tasks are more deadline dependent, maybe you choose to group by due date.

Whatever grouping strategy you choose and find most helpful, the key part here is that you have GROUPS of tasks (this is called a kanban board if you want to get real project-managey about it, but that’s not what we’re here for).

Why these groups are important:

1. They break down your overwhelming task list into manageable chunks that you can chip away at, so you can open your laptop and have a small menu of options to choose to work on right now (the choice part), but they are still the things that are top priority (the illusion part).
2. Because your tasks each have their own card, you can only see a few at a time—this is key, because looking at a spreadsheet of everything you need to do for a client gets overwhelming real quick.

Let’s not forget about automation—because she’s about to be your bestie.

If you know me, you know my two favorite CRMs for creative service providers are HoneyBook and Dubsado.

And if you don’t know what a CRM is, that’s okay! We do not shame in this house!!

A CRM, or Client Relationship Manager, is a fancy acronym for the tool you use to track clients from inquiry through offboarding.

And if you read my “you need a project management tool” yammering above and thought “bitch I already have one—it’s my CRM,” I invite you to ask yourself if your CRM actually helps you feel like you know what tasks you have to do when for each client, or if it just gives you that illusion…

Because while I am all about the Illusion of Choice, I am not about the Illusion of Task Management. And while most CRMs (including HoneyBook and Dubsado) have some task management built in, it’s usually extremely insufficient and doesn’t give you a great view of what you need to do across and within client projects. So I do recommend both, and it’s why I love that ClickUp is free forever (or cheap, depending on what plan you get).

—> NOW BACK TO CRMs (can you tell I have ADHD???)

There are four categories of things that are going to change your life in your CRM:

1. Forms
2. Document Templates
3. Email Templates
4. Workflow Automation

So let’s break it down one by one on why these are going to save your ass.

You need to stop using your website host’s forms.

“But I have a website, and I want this inquiry form on it!!”

Yes queen, I want that for you too. BUT what if every time you got a new inquiry on your website, all that information went right into your CRM and they got a lil welcome email that gets sent regardless of whether you see their email come through? Doesn’t that sound nice???? It does, because it is.

Let me introduce you to an embedded form 🙂‍↕️

And if you’re like “holy shit Gail, we talked about this, I’m literally not a techy person,” fear not my friend. I’m gonna teach you a new skill today.

Okay so you’re gonna create an Inquiry / Lead form (whatever you wanna call it) with all the information you want from a new lead. If you already have one you like already on your website, literally copy and paste those questions into your CRM’s form maker.

If you wanna get fancy with it, you can import your brand fonts and colors and make it all pretty lookin.

Next, you’re going to find the “Share” icon or the … menu and click “Embed” or “Embed Code.” And yes, this is a line of code. No you don’t have to know how to code. You just need to CTRL+C that shit (or hit “Copy”), making sure to grab the full line of code.

In your website host (Showit, Squarespace, etc.), you’re going to go to where you want that form (i.e. a contact page), and you’re going to insert a new block — then add to it what your host might call “Embed” or “HTML” or “Code Block” or something related. It’s gonna be an empty box.

And in that box or the sidebar, you’re going to CTRL+V paste that code from your CRM form into that box. Adjust the size of your block as needed so the whole thing shows up right on your website and THAT’S LITERALLY IT!!! You got this babes, I believe in you so hard.

TEMPLATE THE SHIT OUT OF YOUR LIFE

Up next, document templates. Proposals. Invoices. Contracts. All the stuff that you feel like you could easily waste a whole afternoon on for someone to ultimately decline. And then you are ranting to your dog about it and he/she/it really doesn’t have the energy for your shit right now (just me? okay).

If you’ve already created client documents in your CRM that you’ve liked, you can typically open up those projects, and save those documents as a template and work from there. If you’re starting from scratch, I recommend starting with one of the CRM’s templates and adding your flair from there.

Ideally you make one for each service, or one where clients can select the package they want. This prevents you from recreating the wheel every time, so you can just pop in the right info and BOOM proposal sent.

“But I don’t want to sound like a robot”

Great. You know what sounds like a robot? An email written by ChatGPT.

You know what sounds like YOU? An email template, written by you, exactly the way you would’ve said it if you were typing it straight off the dome. Except maybe with fewer typos and more information that didn’t have to come in subsequent emails.

Some emails that you definitely need:

1. Inquiry Response — a little “hey I got your inquiry & I can’t wait to chat! here’s some more info while I review your responses” goes a longggg way
2. Any of those big details emails — before a shoot or a wedding, where you have to include event details/addresses/color paletes/etc. Give yourself a template to make your life easier, okay?
3. Review Email — ooh I know how much you hate sending the dreaded review request email, but by creating a template that you like, you can literally never have to think about (and feel awkward about) this again!!

And that’s where your bestie, workflow automation, comes in.

While it may sound scary, a “workflow” is just the sequence of steps you go through in a client project, and “automation” is usually just saying “if this thing happens, this other thing should happen.”

So all my yammering about your inquiry form and your inquiry email template? Here’s where we get to the BEST PART.

1. Client submits an inquiry on your website.
2. Your automation sends your Inquiry Response email right away

BOOM. They have some new information in their hands, they know their inquiry landed in your inbox, and you just gave yourself a buffer to review and respond.

And you can apply this same principle to other parts of your workflow! A discovery call is booked? Automate an email draft with a proposal, contract, and invoice. Project marked complete? Automate that review email, baby!!

Okay I’m overwhelmed now. Can I just have someone else do this?

Literally so glad you asked. This resource is always here if you need it, but so am I! I offer full Setups (your offer, start to finish, with all the email and doc templates/automations/etc.) and Sprints (a quick revamp of one part of your process—onboarding, offboarding, etc.), and I would LOVE to work with you.

Use a tool other than HoneyBook, Dubsado, or ClickUp? Reach out! I’ve had my grubby little paws in all kinds of tools, and I’d be happy to talk through our options or refer you to the right specialist.